Magnets and Bullets
by LettersFromNoah
Summary: The war is over and everyone has started their new lives, but things aren't going well for Hermione. Then something happens that reminds her of a certain time in Hogwarts.-Sorry, terrible summary but PLEASE read, it's my first one! Rated M for later chaps
1. Chapter 1

OK, here we go!!...*Takes deep breath* This is my first fan fiction... ever! So sorry if it's really bad.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything except the plot... NOTHING, understand?!

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Chapter 1

Hermione Granger held her wand in a sweaty hand as she heard his footsteps crunch up the gravel pathway. She points her wand towards the door as she watches the handle turn. Her head is filled with arguments about what to do next, two of them shout out to her above all the others. Siding with one she lowers her wand as the door swings open and a figure steps inside.

"What are you doing standing there?" Ron Weasley asks her, narrowing his eyes and gazing at her with suspicion.

"Nothing, nothing, just here to welcome you home. How was your day?" Hermione stammered out.

Ron stared at her for a few more seconds, then shook his head, looked at her and smiled.

"Good good, I have a good feeling about that promotion coming up, the boss pretty much told me today that I'd be getting it," Ron told her happily. She breathed a sigh of relief.

"That's great Ron! Well done, I knew you'd get it. I've made your dinner and it's on the table for you."

"Thanks babes, I'm gonna eat it while watching the quiddich match," he told her without a care.

Hermione left him to watch the match as she went to read a book. She heard shouting downstairs frequently but she couldn't make out if it was good or bad. She came out of her room after a while to get a drink. She peeked into the room Ron was in and realised that the shouting had been bad, his team was losing badly.

"Hermione! Get me a drink!" He shouted angrily.

She felt dread overcome her as she went to get him a drink. She handed him the drink with shaky hands. He took it roughly, causing some of it to spill on him. He jumped up immediately spilling the rest of it on the floor. His face turned beetroot red.

"Merlin woman!" he screamed at her, "you got me soaking wet!"

Hermione cringed back.

"O-only a little bit spilled, it's not, it's not much," she stuttered.

She immediately wished she could take the words and shove them back down her throat as she watched his eyes turn stormy. He took a step towards her, towering over her small figure.

"What did you say?" He hissed.

"N-nothing, I didn't say anything, I didn't mean..." He grabbed the back of her neck.

"I told you to tell me what you said!" He roared.

"Please...Ron please...I love you, just don't..."

"Oh, you love me? You love me, do you?!" He shoved her roughly to the ground and let his hand come down hard on her face and his foot kick out to meet her ribs. She curled up, whimpering with the pain.

"Of course you love me! You need me! And I'm nice enough to let you have me, but I expect something in return, I expect it to be done right. You come flouncing in and drench me with my own drink while I'm trying to enjoy myself watching the game. Merlin knows I only have these few things to enjoy myself with, it's not like I can enjoy myself in bed with your inexperienced cunt!"

He swung out his foot to meet the topic of his insult. Hermione screamed in pain and her eyes welled with tears.

"You're lucky to have me! Any other guy would have run a mile after spending a night with you. I suppose it's good for you that you haven't slept with anyone else, it saves you the embarrassment. Taking your virginity was the worst thing I have ever done, now I can't get rid of you. You trailed after me like the needy dog you are, but I married you anyway, and now you owe me. I took your virginity and now you need me, now you can't leave."

Hermione gulped slowly as Ron lowered his face to hers. She could see the spit at the corners of his mouth.

"Clean this place up," he growled.

She watched him as he walked towards the door to leave.

"You're wrong, you know," she blurted out before she could stop herself. He stopped in his tracks and turned slowly back to face her. His eyes were fierce and narrowed and his jaw was clenched.

"What. Did. You. Say?" He spat out.

Suddenly something broke inside Hermione and she had to let it out.

"I said you're wrong! You weren't the first guy I had sex with, I never gave you my virginity."

"Oh yeah?" Ron mocked, taking slow steps towards her. "And do I know this unbelievably unfortunate man?"

"Yes. You do."

"Oh? Was it our old mate Harry? Yeah I bet that's who you're going to say, isn't it?"

"No," she whispered.

"Oh? Well who was it then?"

"Draco Malfoy."

She heard his sharp intake of breath from across the room.

"You're a liar. You're a lying bitch!" He screamed. He crossed the room in two quick strides. "Don't you ever lie to me!"

His fist came down onto her nose, splattering blood everywhere. He hit her again and again, harder and harder. The last thing she saw was his crazed driven face looming over her as she blacked out from the pain.

Her head took her back to a better time and place in Hogwarts, where Ron was her best friend who couldn't hurt a fly. But, better than that, it was the time she gave her heart to her childhood enemy. It was the time she fell in love.

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Hermione sat at a desk doing her homework in her common room. She knew everything, and finished with about double the work done than was asked, as usual. She sunk into the comfy armchair she was sitting on, rested her head back and sighed in satisfaction. She didn't get to relax long though before she heard the portrait swing open and the sound of deep laughter filtered into the room. Draco Malfoy and Blaise Zabini came into the common room, laughing hard. They both caught sight of Hermione as their laughter died down.

"Hey Mione!" Blaise greeted. She scowled at him.

"_Her_mione," she corrected.

"Yeah, yeah, ok whatever..."

She looked at Draco, who stared back at her with cold grey eyes.

"Granger," he said stiffly.

"Malfoy," she replied in the same tone.

She remembered finding out that she was to be head girl, she couldn't have been happier. When she found out that Draco Malfoy was the new head boy, she almost wanted to give up the opportunity, rather than have to spend a year in the same dorm as him. Luckily they hadn't fought too badly yet, only a few insults passed here and there, mostly they ignored each other.

"Hello? Is there anybody in there? Earth to Hermione!"

She looked up to see Blaise waving a hand in front of her face, pulling her back to the present. Despite being a Slytherin, Blaise was quite fun to have around. He didn't treat her badly, the worst he would do is snicker at some of Malfoy's insults. She might even go as far as to say she actually liked him a little bit. If only he had been head boy rather than Malfoy.

"Yeah, what is it?" she asked.

"I asked if they were all your books on the the table," Blaise told her.

"Yes, they are. They're mine,"

"Blaise, did you really have to ask? I mean who else would have time to read all those books? It's to make up for her lack of a social life," Malfoy sneered. Blaise chuckled and punched him on the shoulder. Hermione rolled her eyes.

"When you two are quite finished, I was relaxing here before you came barging in,"

"It is my common room too, I have every right to be here," Malfoy answered. Hermione groaned and got up to go to her room, leaving the boys in the common room.

When she got to her room she collapsed face down on her bed and lay there. For some reason she didn't feel annoyed or upset at Malfoy for insulting her, she just felt embarrassed and she didn't know why, which was strange.

After a while she drifted off to sleep, waking only when it was getting dark. She stretched and got out of bed. She glanced at her alarm clock, and realised was still in time for dinner. She slipped on her shoes and started down the stairs to the common room.

As she neared the common room she heard a noise. She slowed her pace and crept slowly in. The first thing she saw was Malfoy standing against the wall with his head bent back and he was groaning slightly. Her stomach fluttered when she saw his face, surprising her. Then she saw Pansy Parkinson kneeling down in front of him and she felt a sudden flash of something fill her body as she realised what she was doing.

"Do you mind?" she squealed. Pansy squeaked in surprise and stood up quickly. Malfoy, however, took his time zipping himself back up. His eyes slid over to meet Hermiones', a slight smirk on his face.

"I did not come down here to see you giving him a blow job for the world to see," Hermione said to Pansy.

"Well I didn't come in here to see you!" She shot back. "It's none of your business what we do mudblood,"

Hermione's eyebrow twitched, it still upset her when someone called her that. It made her feel like she didn't fully belong, even though she knew she was a much better witch than Pansy would ever be. She knew she should just ignore the insult, but somehow she couldn't. She hoped Pansy wouldn't notice that she had made an impact, but she hoped in vain. Pansy pounced on her reaction with more insults.

"You shouldn't be here in this school at all! You don't belong here, you're just a fake Hermione Granger, impure, a weak little nosy mudblood!"

"Shut-up Pansy,"

Hermione blinked in surprise and heard Pansy gasp in astonishment as she looked in the direction of the voice. Hermione realised that Draco's eyes had never left hers and they still hadn't, but there was no trace of a smirk on his face now.

"W-what did you say?" Pansy stammered.

"I said shut-up," Draco repeated.

"But..."

"You can go now," he cut her off.

"But Draco..." she whined, hanging on his shoulder.

"I said you can go!" he ordered, finally tearing his eyes away from Hermione to glare at Pansy. He shook her off his shoulder. "Now."

Pansy sulkily slid from the room. Hermione stared after her, gob smacked. Had Draco Malfoy actually stood up for her? She looked at him, his eyes were fixed on her again. She tilted her head and looked at him quizzically, his eyes stared back at her, as hard as steal and his mouth was fixed into a tight frown.

"Thanks," she said quietly. In response he turned away from her and left to go to his room, taking the stairs two at a time. She turned around and walked slowly back to her own room.

She thought about what had just happened. When she had first seen what Pansy was doing she had been hit with an emotion so strongly she almost cried out, but what was it? Jealousy. But no, it couldn't be. Jealousy of what? That she was with a guy and Hermione had never been? No it wasn't that, she'd seen lots of couples before and she hadn't felt jealous, she spent most of her time with Harry and Ginny for goodness sake! Of Pansy? Ha! Not likely! But then another idea came to her, it was both of them. She _was_ jealous of Pansy and it _was _because she was with someone, but it was rather of _who_ she had, _who_ she was with. She was jealous that Pansy had Draco Malfoy and she didn't. As soon as she thought about it she knew she was right, but she wouldn't accept it. She could not like Draco Malfoy, there was no way that was possible. She hated him, with good reason too, he had been horrible to her.

She forced that thought out of her head and tried to think of other options. Suddenly she heard a crash and a shout from Draco's room.

She raced out of her room to his, the door was ajar. She peeked into his room. He was standing there with his shirt off and his hair sticking out everywhere. She noticed there was glass shattered on the floor and he was breathing heavily. She stepped into the room.

"Erm...are you ok?" Hermione asked carefully. He turned around to face her, his eyes furious and a growl escaped his lips.

"Just fuck off, will you?" He shouted. "Pansy was right about you, you're a weak little nosy mudblood, too nosy for your own good."

Hermione bit her lip to stop herself from crying, but she couldn't stop the hurt showing on her face. She noticed a flash of something in his eyes but it was gone in an instant.

"Ugh, just get out," he said and closed the door in her face.

Hermione ran to her room and let the tears pour down her cheeks. She cried and called Malfoy every name under the sun but none of it made her feel any better. It was only as she was drifting into a dreamless sleep that she realised she had forgotten to have dinner.

… …

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Yay!!! First chapter up, phew! *wipes forehead dramatically*. Pretty please with sugar on top and ice-cream in the middle review and tell me what you think. Oooohhhh, I love constructive criticism, so don't be shy!:D Chapter 2 is coming soon, to a computer near you! (I'm sorry I couldn't help myself)

Ok, thanks for reading! Luv luv,

LettersFromNoah. xxx


	2. Chapter 2

Hey!! ok, ok! here's chapter two! Thanks to everyone who subscribed, faved or reviewed!! you're the best!! huggies!! oh and by the way I'm not a Ron-hater, it was the only way! *Clasps hands dramatically* Alrighty then, on to chapter 2... enjoy!!

Disclaimer: I wouldn't dream of stealing anything from the amazing author that is J.K. Rowling!! So...I own nothing!

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Chapter 2

Hermione woke up the next morning with a blocked nose and red eyes and realised she had fallen asleep crying. She went to the bathroom to clean herself up before heading down to breakfast. She past Malfoy in the common room and tried to ignore him, but she hadn't succeeded in unpuffing her eyes. She still looked like she'd been crying. He saw her face and bit his lip guiltily.

"Hermione I..." he started.

"Whatever it is, I don't want to hear it," she interrupted him, holding her hand up. She walked out of the room, leaving him to stare after her.

All the way down to the breakfast she tried to understand what was going on. Sure Malfoy had called her a mudblood and insulted her but, even though she never liked it, it certainly wasn't the first time he had done it and it had never made her cry so much before. But she just couldn't like him, it wasn't possible, she was smarter than that...wasn't she? There wasn't a question you could ask her that she couldn't answer if it was in a book, but... Was this something completely different? Could her head control what she felt? Stop this! She told herself. You do _not _like Draco Malfoy.

She saw Harry, Ron and Ginny sitting with some more Griffindors and she went over to join them. Ginny noticed her eyes immediately.

"Hermione! What's wrong? You look like you've been crying,"

Hermione groaned. She should have used some magic to conceal her eyes properly.

"Oh it's nothing, just Malfoy being an ass, as usual," she told her. Harry and Ron came to full attention at the sound of Malfoy's name.

"Ugh, what's the ferret done this time?" Ron asked.

"Just the usual insults, you know?" She replied. Harry and Ron nodded. Hermione stole a glance at Ginny and noticed that she was eyeing her suspiciously, as if she knew that that wasn't all.

"Aw don't worry Hermione, everything that comes out of his mouth is complete garbage. Just ignore him," Harry told her, patting her on the back. She smiled at him as thanks, silently begging Ginny not to say anything. Her prayers were answered and Ginny held her tongue.

After breakfast they headed off to their first class. The day went by quite fast for Hermione as usual, that was usually a good thing about liking all your classes.

It wasn't so good today though, because the last thing Hermione wanted to do was go back to her common room and see Malfoy. She spent as much time as she could doing her homework in the library and hanging out with Harry and Ron. But finally she accepted she couldn't hide out any longer, it was getting late, so she headed towards the common room, sighing in defeat.

As the portrait swung closed behind her she saw Malfoy sitting in an armchair reading a book. She cleared her throat to make her presence known. Malfoy jumped up in fright, slammed the book closed and threw it on the floor. Hermione stared at him in confusion. She'd never seen him surprised before, he always seemed to be expecting everything. But when he looked up at her his face was composed back into the usual sarcastic look.

"Oh great, I thought you weren't coming, I was looking forward to having the room to myself." He said, Hermione pursed her lips.

"Don't worry, you will, I'm going up to my room now,"

She started walking away, but, over the sound of her footsteps, she heard him mutter,

"Good, because I wouldn't want my atmosphere polluted by your impure blood..."

Something snapped inside Hermione at that moment, she rounded on him,

"Just shut up! You can't talk to me like that! You might hate me and don't worry, the feeling's mutual, but I still have feelings, no matter what you might think! I've put up with your insults for years, but now I've had enough! Nothing gives you the right to..."

She stopped short when she caught sight of the book he'd been reading. She looked at his face, it seemed to be filled with a mixture of astonishment at her cry out and guilt.

Guilt? No, it must be something else, she thought.

She looked at the book again, then back at him. She watched his eyes slide in the direction hers had just come from and realise what had made her stop shouting. His eyes widened and darted around, as if trying to think of an excuse for the question that they both knew would come next.

"Were you..." she started, "why were you reading my notebook?"

"I wasn't!" he immediately replied.

"Yes, you were. I saw you put it down when I came in,"

He looked at her for a few seconds, then shifted his gaze to the notebook. When he looked back at her, his eyes were narrowed and his mouth was pulled up into a smirk.

"Ok you're right, I _was_ reading your notebook. I was reading it because I don't believe you're as smart as the grades you get, I think you cheat! So I was reading your notebook to find out how you do it, and then you wont be Ms. Know-it-all Granger anymore!"

"How dare you?" she hissed, "how dare you! I have never cheated in anything in my life, and you know it! So don't you dare accuse me of doing anything of the sort! Just because you want to be first in the class does _not_ mean you can just, just... ugh!" She screamed in frustration. Without even finishing her sentence, she grabbed her notebook from the floor and raced out of the room.

~*~*~*~

It was an hour or two later before she came down from her dorm. She realised she had left the book she was reading down stairs in the common room and she wanted to go and get it. She decided that she wouldn't even make eye contact with Malfoy if he was still down there.

As she neared the room, she heard voices. She recognised them as Malfoy and Zabini. The conversation became clearer as she came closer. She overheard her name being spoken and decided to hide behind one of the pillars that was in the room.

If they're going to talk about me, I have a right to hear what they say, she thought to herself. But what she heard next left her lost for words.

"It doesn't make sense though!" She heard Malfoy reply to something Blaise had said to him. "I hate her! I hate everything about her, the stupid little mudblood know-it-all."

"You're gonna have to stop calling her that man, I'm pretty sure she doesn't like it, actually she hates it."

Hermione found herself feeling grateful to Blaise, but also quite surprised. He would never tell Malfoy not to call her that, he'd never batted an eye lid when he'd called her that in front of him before.

"Why should I care what she hates?" Malfoy shot back, "She's a little bitch, she deserves it."

"But you just told me..."

"Forget what I told you!" Malfoy cut him off, "I don't know what came over me, I must have lost my mind for a second, I hate her! I hate everything she stands for! I do! I hate her, I hate her, I..."

And to Hermione's utter astonishment, he broke down into sobs.

"I don't," he whispered, so quietly Hermione almost didn't hear him, "I love her,"

Hermione's breath stopped. She was sure she had misheard him. But then he said it more forcefully,

"I love her!"

"Hey man, don't cry," Blaise said, but it wasn't in an awkward guys-don't-cry-in-front-of-their-friends way, it was sympathetic.

"I'm sorry, I can't help it though. I have to hurt her all the time, to try and stop myself feeling like this, but it doesn't help and I hate myself for doing it. It's just...I can't like her, I just can't!"

Hermione gasped. Malfoy didn't seem to hear her but Blaise's head shot up in her direction. She came slowly out from behind the pillar. As Blaise caught sight of her, a grin spread across his face. He may be the type of guy who'll comfort his friend when he cries, but he was a sucker for an awkward situation, he always had been. Whenever he saw people stuck in one, he couldn't seem to keep a straight face. This was no different.

He started snickering, Malfoy looked up at him in bewilderment.

"What the fuck are you laughing at? Do you think this is funny?!" He asked angrily.

"I'm sorry Draco, but your secret's out," he told him pointing towards Hermione, still smiling. Malfoy swiveled around in his chair. His eyes locked with Hermiones' and widened.

"Shit," he said.

Hermione turned on her heel and, forgetting about the book, fled the room.

"Hermione!" Malfoy shouted after her, "crap! What do I do?" he said, turning back to Blaise who, seeing his friend's distress, had turned serious again. "Zabini! What do I do?"

"Erm...I don't know...go after her!" Malfoy bit his lip in indecision.

"Do you think I should?"

"Yeah! Isn't that what people do in these type of situations?"

Malfoy nodded slowly and, deciding suddenly, jumped from the chair to run after her, but stopped.

"Erm, Blaise...about a few minutes ago...you're not going to..." he struggled for the words.

"Hey Draco, don't you know me better than that?" he pretended to be hurt, "don't worry, don't worry, what happens in the room stays in the room,"

Malfoy nodded in thanks.

"Wow, someone could really hear that the wrong way..." he heard Blaise smirk as he raced from the room after Hermione.

He found her sitting cross-legged on her bed, a tight frown on her face as if she was deep in thought.

Ok, her eyes are dry, that's a good start I guess, Malfoy thought to himself. He stepped slowly into the room.

"Hermione?" he said carefully. Her head snapped out of thought.

"What are you?...how can you?...But you...But I...I don't..." she stopped trying to get a sentence out and threw her hands up in frustration instead.

"Can we...talk?" Malfoy asked. Hermione hesitated, then nodded reluctantly. He came further into the room and sat on one of the chairs but quickly got up , realising that he wouldn't be able to sit still and paced instead.

"You said you loved me... do you?" Hermione asked, Malfoy looked at her, "no, you don't," she answered herself. He raised his eyebrows. Hermione looked at him and saw that for once in her life, she had answered wrong.

"But you treat me so badly..."

"I know you heard that part too," he said.

"But you can't!" she shouted angrily, which immediately brought up his defense.

"Hey look! This isn't easy for me either. I don't want to like you, you can trust me on that! I hate your friends, I hate everything you stand for, I hate your kind. I just can't hate you," he told her, "that's why I always act like that, to try and, I don't know, I guess I was trying to convince myself that I still hated you, or to make myself hate you again, or something."

"But that's not fair! I like you but I don't go around treating you like shit for no reason..." she clamped a hand over her mouth, but it was too late. A slow smirk spread across Malfoy's face.

"You like me? Of course you do, who doesn't like me?" Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Don't get so cocky," she said, "it's only a recent thing,"

"Ha! I knew I saw you checking me out the other day in the common room with Pansy,"

"What? Are you serious?! That's not true! That was the last thing I was doing, the first was getting sick!"

"Yeah ok, you say that, if it makes you feel better," he mocked.

"Wait, how did this conversation turn around from you trying to explain yourself, to me trying to explain myself instead?"

"I don't know, but I sure like it better this way!" Hermione sighed in frustration, but then another thought occurred to her.

Hey, what about Blaise? Isn't your whole I'm-an-evil-muggle-born-hating-slytherin image ruined now?"

"He won't tell anyone about it, I wouldn't have told him otherwise. Incase you didn't know I'm not one to tell anything to just anyone. Anyway, it's not like he hadn't guessed already, Blaise is different, he's smarter than the other idiots in our school, excluding me of course. Besides, I am an-evil-muggle-born-hating-slytherin."

"Hello? Muggle-born witch that you like right here! And contrary to other's beliefs, you are definitely not evil. You may want people to think you are, but you're not. You're an ass, that's for sure, and one of the most annoying, hate-able people I know. But, and I know this upsets you, you are not evil."

His face was serious now, and he swallowed hard, looking her right in the eyes.

"Don't be so sure of that," he whispered. Something in his voice made Hermione shiver with fear, but not of him, for him and she didn't have a clue why.

"Besides, you're the only mudbl--, oops sorry, I mean muggle-born,that I've ever liked, I hate all others, you're my exception," he told her.

"Well excuse me if I don't start kissing your feet with gratitude for that one," she said, but really what he said sent tingles of pleasure running through her. He smirked.

"Don't worry, you will be. Well, it probably won't be my feet you'll be kissing," he gave her a teasing wink. She raised an eyebrow.

"Ok Mr. I'm-too-sexy-for-my-shirt, you can leave now," she said walking to the door and opening it for him.

He let out a laugh, which made her go weak at the knees.

"Ah, Ms. Granger, do I make you feel uneasy?" he said, taking a step towards her.

"Don't Ms. Granger me! And, no, apart from sickness you have had no effect whatsoever on my feelings,"

"Oh yes, you're sick with love for me," he said, closing the gap between them, quickly enough for Hermione to be feeling quite uncomfortable.

"Ha! Don't flatter yourself!" She replied, but blushed all the same.

Malfoy, seeing her cheeks turn a a deep shade of red, smirked and grabbed her hand, pulling her so that she took the last remaining steps, clearing the distance between them. He bent his head so that it was just centimetres from hers', their noses almost touching. She looked up at him and felt his warm breath on her face. One of his hands was on the small of her back, holding her gently but firmly to him, the other hand was playing with a strand of her hair teasingly. Hermione wasn't sure if she hated what was happening, or loved it.

"Just so you know, this would be a complete secret, no one would know," He whispered in her ear, "Let's see if that doesn't tempt you."

And with one last seductive stare, he stepped carefully around her and walked smoothly from the room.

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ooohhhh! Things are getting exciting!...I hope!:P Ok people, you know the drill!! Reviews please!! Next stop chapter 3!!:D

luvness,

LettersFromNoah xxx


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

If Hermione concentrated really hard, she found that she could just about ignore Malfoy for the few seconds it took to pass thorough the common room whenever she needed to. Unfortunately that didn't numb the feeling of his eyes boring into her back, which she felt every time.

Though she tried as hard as she could, she couldn't deny the fact that she was attracted to Draco Malfoy. She couldn't believe it, she didn't want it, but that didn't stop it. And, apparently, the feeling was mutual, all parts of it.

None of her friends seemed to noticed something was up, except for Ginny, who eyed her suspiciously any time she walked into a room. She hadn't confronted Hermione on it though, which Hermione was immensely pleased about. She didn't know how well she would be able to lie to her best friend. She was good at lying, but that was to her enemies, which usually involved someone's life or comfort being at risk.

It was one morning that changed everything, and it started with Hermione waking up late.

"Shit!" she swore as she read the time on her alarm clock. She had about five minutes to get to class.

It's ok, she thought to herself, she could make it.

She threw on her robes, grabbed her wand and her books and raced from the room. She stopped short as she entered the common room, the sight making her scream in surprise.

Malfoy was standing in the middle of the room wearing nothing but a towel slung over his shoulder. Hermione couldn't stop her eyes wandering down.

"Oh yeah," Malfoy smirked, "I know." Hermione's eyes darted up again.

"Wha..." she started, then slightly recovered, "shouldn't your towel be somewhere else?"

"No, I don't think so, it's fine where it is," he winked at her. Hermione gulped and turned to leave the room but, once again, she was stopped.

"You look adorable when you sleep, by the way," she heard from behind her.

She spun around.

"You came into my room?" she asked incredulously, then she realised why, "You turned off my alarm clock!"

He started laughing.

"You should really use something more permanent, that muggle device is very easy to tamper with."

"But...why would you do that?"

"You need to loosen up a bit."

"By being late for class?"

"Yes," he said simply. Hermione glared at him.

"I'm leaving now, you should get dressed," she told him. And with that she attempted to do the impossible and make it to class on time.

She didn't succeed. A classroom of heads turned to look at her in utter disbelief as she slammed the door behind her. She heard whispers fill the room. Hermione Granger was late for class? She attempted to catch her breath and faced Professor McGonagall.

"I'm so sorry professor I..." she couldn't finish her excuse, she didn't have one, or at least not an acceptable one. The professor took a few seconds to realise that her mouth was gaping open and snapped it shut.

"Oh...Hermione, perhaps you should sit down," she then composed herself and motioned to her usual desk, "as this has never happened before I will let it slide, but if you are late again I will take ten points from Gryffindor."

Hermione nodded and sat down at the desk, which was next to Harry and Ron. She glanced at Harry's book and opened her's at the same page, ignoring their gaping stares and silent questions. McGonagall began to explain the contents of the page before her but, for the first time, Hermione didn't pay attention to a word of it.

As the school day drew to a close Hermione found herself eager to get up to her dorm and away from Harry and Ron's questions. She took her usual path and recited the password to the portrait.

She dumped her books onto the table in the middle of the common room. Then turned around and gasped as she spun right into Malfoy. He was standing inches from her with a very determined look on his face. He grabbed her waist and leaned forward to sniff her hair.

"What the...what are you doing? Get off me!" she struggled to get free, "Malfoy I'm serious, I..."

She was cut short as he pressed his lips against her's. Her struggling stopped immediately as a fire raced through her. She shut her eyes, the blinked them open again when her mind caught up with her body.

"Malfoy..."

"Shhhh..." he whispered against her mouth. She obeyed, her body still unwilling to pull away. She let her arms slide around his neck. She felt his teeth pull at her bottom lips and she pulled him closer. He slid her robes off of her and shrugged his own off. He broke their kiss to lean down to catch her legs in his arms, lifting her off the ground. He carried her up to his room, not breaking his gaze with her the whole time. Hermione felt herself melt under his stare.

He lay her down on his bed and crawled over her. He lowered his head to kiss her, his tongue licked her lip, begging entry, which she happily gave. He leant over on his side, still kissing her, one of his hands stroking her cheek. He then let his hand slide down her neck, down over her ribs, under her t-shirt and then back up to cup her bra. She heard him growl with frustration.

He used both of his hands to rip her t-shirt off her, then undid her bra expertly and sighed with satisfaction as his hand felt bare flesh. He then lowered his mouth to her nipple and licked it lightly. He grinned as he felt it harden and placed his mouth on it, sucking hard. She moaned in pleasure. She grabbed a handful of his hair and bit her lip as he switched sides.

She tugged his t-shirt off him, which seemed to start a frenzy in him. He pulled her skirt down followed by her knickers. Following his lead, she undid the belt and buttons on his jeans, he kicked them off impatiently. Hermione gasped as she felt him hard against her. Was that all for her? He turned his head up to her and grinned as he took off his own underwear. She felt herself go red. He pulled his mouth up to her ear.

"You ready?" he asked. She nodded mutely.

She felt his hand slide down her again, sending tingles through her body. His hand went down past her hip to the top of her thigh. He rubbed the inside of her thigh teasingly, then moved his hand onto her opening and smiled when he felt it already damp, inviting him in. Without warning, he plunged his finger into her.

Hermione gasped and bucked involuntarily. Draco smirked and pulled his finger out only to push it in again, harder. Hermione let out a squeak and grabbed her hair. Draco pulled out his finger again, this time adding another finger inside her. He repeated this action over, getting harder each time, with Hermione gasping at each entry.

Hermione felt a million emotions hit her at once. She couldn't believe how amazing this felt, but what surprised her was that every time she felt Draco's finger enter her body she got more and more impatient. Impatient for what was about to come next. So when she felt she couldn't take it anymore, she shook her head fiercely. Draco immediately understood and released his fingers again, leaving them out. He looked up at her questioningly and she nodded. This was the only encouragement he needed.

He pulled himself up and took position over her, muttering a quick contraceptive spell. She felt him pressing against her, making her heart beat even faster. Draco found himself unable to wait any longer. He set himself between her legs, held his breath, and shoved himself into her. Pain coursed through Hermione and she let out a short scream. She bit her lip and squeezed her eyes shut as she felt tears come to them. Draco looked up at her pained face, and his eyes widened in realisation.

"Oh, Hermione...I didn't know...shit!" Hermione shook her head sharply.

"No, it doesn't matter, just keep going,"

"But I should have..."

"Just shut up! Shut up!" Draco shut his mouth and started again. Fighting against the longing that filled every part of his body, he forced himself to go softer this time, not wanting to hurt her. Hermione clenched her teeth together against the pain that was covering up any pleasure. Finally she felt it begin to decrease until she was able to ignore it. She began to feel how good he felt inside her and she let out a moan.

"Harder!" She said, "go harder!" Draco looked up at her and saw that she meant it. He didn't need another invitation. He plunged harder and faster into her. Relief and pleasure engulfed him as he listened to her scream his name and she pull his hair. He loved the sound of his first name on her lips. She made it sound so good, she made it feel so good. He went harder and further into her until he felt couldn't go any more. In one last final attempt, he grabbed the backs of her thighs in his hands and hoisted her legs further up on him and he thrust himself into her. He heard her scream in his ear as he felt her spill around him. He followed a few seconds later, emptying himself into her.

He felt happiness and exhaustion wash over him and he collapsed on top of her, not enough strength to move. After a few seconds he rolled off her and lay beside her, panting heavily.

"Oh Merlin!" she whispered breathlessly. He had been thinking the exact same thing and somehow found this hysterical. He began to laugh loudly. Hermione stared at him in astonishment. She had never heard him laugh like this before, like he would never be able to stop. She realised she loved it. She loved the creases it made around his eyes, the sound of it and, most of all, the fact that every single trace of coldness was gone from his eyes. In that moment everything was forgotten, every insult passed between them, all the years of enmity. Gone.

In that moment she was head over heels for Draco Malfoy.

~*~*~*~*~*

Hermione skipped down to the common room the next morning. She felt good, different, but good. It was a free feeling, despite the twinge of pain she felt between her legs, she wanted to laugh out loud for no reason at all. She immediately caught sight of Draco as she entered the room, he was lying back on the couch with his hands behind his head. He opened his eyes and sat up as soon as he heard her come in. He stood up when he saw her.

"Hey, erm, about last night," he started. Hermione felt fear overcome her. Was he going to say that it was all a mistake and he didn't mean it? Or that it was a joke? "I can usually make it last longer that that, just so you know. It was only because it was my first time, you know, with you," he stopped for a second, an awkward look on his face. But that went away soon enough. "Those rumors that you hear about me and my, well, let's call them talents, they're not just rumors." He winked at her.

She felt instantly relieved, he had meant everything. She hadn't even noticed that it had been short, she just knew that it had been amazing. She smiled at him shyly and turned to leave, but stopped. She turned back to him slowly. She gulped, unsure of what words she should use.

"Erm...last night was my first time..." she stopped to look at Draco, who was looking at her curiously. She cleared her throat awkwardly and tried again. "Last night was my first time, and I just wanted to say, I mean, I wanted you to know that I'm, well, I'm glad it was with you."

Again she felt fear course through her, afraid he would laugh at her. But the smile that spread over his face wasn't mocking. He walked over to her, covering the distance in two strides, and slipped his fingers through hers. He looked down at their entwined fingers, then back up at her.

"I'm glad you're glad it was with me," he told her, still smiling. He pressed his forehead against hers and stared into her chocolate eyes, getting lost in them. He felt more vulnerable then than he had felt in his whole life. He was no longer in control of his heart. He had given it away to the person he was supposed to hate most in the world, so that she could do with it what she pleased. But the thing that scared him most, was that he didn't care.

When Draco stepped away from her, Hermione was able to snap back to herself.

"Eh, I have to go have breakfast," she told him, still a bit flustered. "This is still a secret, right?" He nodded gravely.

"It has to be," he said. She nodded in understanding, gave him one last smile and left the room.

She floated down to the Great Hall on a cloud. She knew she looked like an idiot, grinning from ear to ear, but she couldn't stop herself. She spotted Harry and Ron at a table and skipped over to them.

"Hi guys!" she exclaimed happily.

"Hi Luna...?" Harry said referring to her skipping. She laughed.

"Stop it Harry!"

"Ok, but seriously, what happened to you? You're not usually so...happy."

"Thanks a lot," she replied sarcastically, but it still didn't dampen her mood. "I just feel good today!"

"Have you been drinking liquid luck, Hermione?" Harry asked suspiciously.

Hermione looked over at Ron who had only half noticed her entrance as he stuffed his face with whatever breakfast he could eat.

"Hi Ron!" she said, waving in his face.

"Oh, hi Hermione!" he said, oblivious to her over enthusiastic mood. Just then, Ginny entered the Hall and made her way over to them. Harry greeted her by pulling her down onto his lap and and kissing her full on the lips. She tried to push him off, giggling.

"Oye! Do you mind? That happens to be my sister you're kissing right in front of me...while I'm having my breakfast, I might add!"

"Hey come on Ron, Hermione is like my sister!" Hermione's head shot up.

"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked sharply.

"It means that soon Ron will be able to get back at me!" he laughed. Hermione's jaw dropped. Did he actually just say that out loud?

"Harry!" He looked over to see his girlfriend glaring at him.

"Aw, come on Ginny, Hermione, it was only a joke," he defended himself.

"Well it wasn't funny...at all!" Ginny told him, as Hermione turned red with embarrassment.

"Hey look it doesn't matter guys, I don't mind," Ron said.

"Well, we're not talking about you Ronald," Ginny told him through clenched teeth, "I need to speak to Hermione, so you two can go."

"But we were here first!" Harry protested.

"I haven't finished yet!" Ron complained. Ginny gave them both a deathly stare. They took one look at her and decided it wasn't worth the fight. They both got up moaning, and headed out of the Great Hall.

"Thanks Ginny," Hermione said and got up to leave but Ginny stopped her.

"Hey I'm not joking Hermione, I really do want to talk to you."

Crap, she has noticed something different, Hermione thought to herself.

"Look Hermione, you know I don't care wether or not you date my brother. I mean sure it would have been cool to have you as an official sister but a best friend is good enough," Ginny started, "but the thing is you are my best friend, and I can see when something is bothering you, even if you pretend you're ok. So from what I've seen is that you've been pretty upset about something over the past few days, and then suddenly this morning you're overly happy, I mean you're skipping in the Great Hall for Merlin's sake!"

Hermione laughed. Ginny was right, Hermione had been stupid to ever try and make her believe there was nothing wrong. Ron may be one of the least observant people on the planet but his sister, if anything, was the complete opposite. She thought over what she should do.

"Ok Ginny, you're right, something has been upsetting me over the past few days, and I truly am over the moon right now. But, the thing is, I can't tell you why. I wish I could, but I can't," she told her.

"Why not?" Ginny asked curiously and a little bit hurt that her friend was keeping something from her.

"Because I agreed with a certain person that I wouldn't," Hermione told her. There was a pause.

"Would that person be Draco Malfoy?" Ginny asked suddenly. Hermione widened her eyes at the unexpected question.

"How did you know?" she asked, not able to think up a better response quick enough.

"Well, let's see. You started feeling bad that day that you came down to breakfast with your eyes red and that was because of Malfoy. Every time his name is mentioned you snap to attention and, recently, you've actually started defending him when Harry or Ron insult him. You also spend a lot of time looking over at him when you think no one is watching you."

"Oh," Hermione said, surprised. She really had thought no one was looking when she took sneak peaks at Draco.

"Yeah, I know!" Ginny replied, "you made it pretty obvious, but don't worry, Harry and Ron still haven't noticed anything. I don't think they'd actually take it seriously if you shouted it in their faces, so they definitely haven't been looking out for it. I can hardly believe that you have a crush on Draco Malfoy of all people, I mean sure he's probably the best looking guy in Hogwarts, apart from Harry of course. I mean all the things he's done to you and Harry and Ron and everyone, he hasn't exactly been friendly..."

Hermione was still a little bit surprised that Ginny had actually noticed anything, and more surprised that she wasn't shouting at her for liking him. She decided then that if Ginny was good enough to be able to, not only notice there was some thing wrong but, to realise what it was too, then she was a good enough friend to be able to keep her secret. After all Draco had told Blaise. Hermione knew that Ginny was very good at keeping her mouth shut when she wanted to.

"Ok Ginny, look, you're right," Hermione started.

"Oh I know," Ginny replied immediately.

"Yeah except you said you couldn't believe I had a crush on Draco Malfoy but actually...well...it's more that just a crush really. I mean we're actually kind of secretly dating..."

"Oh Merlin! I did not expect that. You and Malfoy? That is very hard to believe, the crush, ok I could push myself to believe it, but this? This is very big."

"You can't tell anyone, I mean it Ginny!" Hermione told her, Ginny shook her head.

"I know, I know, I wouldn't dream of it. I mean if word got back to Harry or Ron they definitely wouldn't take it as kindly as I'm taking it now. And I'm still in shock. So is this a recent thing?"

"Very. We have officially been going out for about half an hour now. Except for there was..." Hermione trailed off.

"There was what?" Ginny immediately pushed, eager for more details.

"Well, last night, we...you know..." Hermione could feel herself blushing just talking about it.

Ginny's eyes widened.

"Hermione! No! Really? How did that happen? How was it? Is he really as good as people say?"

Hermione smiled mysteriously.

"I don't kiss and tell," she said.

"That means yes!" Ginny cried. Hermione shushed her nervously.

"Sorry, sorry. It's just so...you know!" she squealed excitedly.

"Ginny seriously!"

"Sorry! Hey does anyone else know about this?"

"Yeah Blaise, just Blaise," Hermione told her.

"Ok, wow! I still can't believe you're going out with Draco Malfoy! That's so weird!"

"I know, right? But I'm serious Ginny, you can't tell anyone, not a soul."

"No, no don't worry, I won't. Your secret's safe with me," Ginny assured her.

Hermione sighed, she really hoped it was.


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey everyone!! :D I totally forgot about my hellos and goodbyes in my last chapter. I'm sorry, it's 'cause I'm really forgetful plus I was so excited to get the chapter up! :P Thank you to everyone who has read this story, reviewed it, added it to their favs, added it to story alerts... everything!! Just thank you sooo much, it means so much. Ok sorry that i took a while to update this, I have been fighting extremely hard with this enemy of mine, the names writers block, maybe you've heard of him? :P Well he drives me insane! But anyway, that is the reason that this chapter is shorter than the others and quite badly written too, I'm sorry... :( But you can read it anyway!**

**Disclaimer: The only place I own any of these characters is in my dreams. I love those dreams so much! But my life isn't a dream (unfortunately) so I don't own any of these characters. **

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**Chapter 4**

Hermione pulled Draco's hand out from underneath her top as she heard the portrait door slam shut.

"Hey..." Draco growled, seemingly oblivious to the sound, or else he was just ignoring it, Hermione thought.

"There's someone here," Hermione told him.

"So?" He replied. Obviously he had been ignoring it. Hermione pushed him off her and sat up, just as Blaise walked in.

"What is it Zabini?" Draco growled through clenched teeth. Blaise held up his hands in mock defence.

"Hey sorry, I didn't mean to walk in on you guys..." he laughed, "I guess you'll just have to wait for a bit."

"I guess you'll just have to leave!" Draco shot back. Hermione hit him on the shoulder.

"Hey! Stop being rude!" Draco turned to look back at her and when she raised her eyebrows at him he scowled back and slumped down on the couch.

"Thanks Hermione, I didn't fancy being beaten up by him today," Blaise said.

"Don't think you've escaped it," Draco threatened. Blaise mocked terror, which made Hermione laugh. The sound made Draco's insides melt and all his anger vanished in a flash, but he wouldn't let either Hermione or Blaise know that.

"What do you want anyway? Can't you come back later?" Draco moaned.

"Yeah, I guess I could, but that would be so inconvenient for me, so you'll just have to put up with it."

"Hey! I don't have to put up with anything, don't talk to me like that! I don't feel like talking to you anyway."

"Oh please, get down off your high horse, you're not fooling anyone here," Blaise told him jokingly, "Besides, I came to talk to Mione, not to you."

"_Her_mione!" Hermione said exasperatedly, "What about?"

"Did you tell that Weasley girl about you two, 'cause she keeps giving me those we-share-a-secret looks and it's starting to piss me off. Draco here isn't the only one with a reputation to uphold."

Hermione glanced guiltily over at Draco. He was looking at her accusingly.

"What? She's my best friend!" she said defensively.

"Granger..." Draco growled softly and rubbed his hands down his face in exasperation.

"You told Blaise!" Hermione argued.

"That's because I can trust Blaise," he told her.

"Well I can trust Ginny," Hermione told him, sticking her head back.

"No you can't. She's already given it away, that's why Blasie is here for Merlin's sake!"

"That's because he already knew, but you're right, she messed up there, I'll have to talk to her..."

"Wait a minute!" Draco interrupted her, "You said she was your best friend, I thought Potty and Weaslebe were your best friends? You haven't told them, have you?"

"Of course not!" Hermione exclaimed, "I'm not stupid! And Ginny is my best girl friend, she's the one I tell everything do, especially things to do with boys. Talking about that with _Harry_ and _Ron _would be awkward."

"Oh, well ok then, at least you won't tell _those_ two, but keep the she-weasel on a tight watch, will you? Don't let her tell anyone else!" Draco grumbled. Hermione glared at him. She really wish he would stop insulting her friends and using those stupid names.

"Just get the girl to stop looking at me all the time and I'm happy," Blaise said.

"Look, she just said she would talk to her, there your problem is solved, so you can leave," Draco persisted. He was still a little embarrassed about the way he had acted in front of Blaise the other day when they were talking about Hermione. Blaise may not have minded Draco crying in front of him but he certainly did. He had to make sure he set the record straight again, he was not soft, and he would hate to be the person to make the mistake of thinking he was.

"Fine, fine, I'm going, sheesh!" Blaise replied, messing, "Unless Ms. Granger here would like me to stay and--"

"Get out!" Draco cut him off. Hermione giggled to herself as Blaise backed out of the room, bowing mockingly as he went.

"Ok well I'm going to have a shower," Hermione informed the still moody Draco, who immediately perked up.

"Ok! I'll be in in a second," he told her. Hermione, who had began to walk away turned back around to face him.

"No, I meant on my own," she told him, "I want to think about a few things, besides I do not want to be around you when you're acting like that."

"But..."

"No!" Hermione insisted. Draco glared at her, the down at the floor.

"Stupid stubborn mudblood," he muttered. Then, realising he had said this louder that he had meant to, he glanced guiltily up at Hermione. Her expression had completely changed, she was trying to glare at him angrily but anyone could have seen the hurt that filled face. Draco had never noticed how hurt she had been by it before, he had just liked making her feel bad. Stupid idiot, he thought to himself.

"Fuck you, Malfoy," she said simply, then left him alone, mentally hitting himself for not thinking before speaking.

"Hermione I..." he began calling after her, then stopped when he realised she wasn't listening.

~*~*~

Hermione's tears mixed with the water from the shower as they trickled down her face.

She was surprised to believe that the words he spoke hurt her now even more than they had before. Now, when she knew he didn't mean them, at least she thought she knew. The question that she had been able to stop surfacing suddenly popped into her consciousness. Was this all just a joke? Even though, deep down, she knew that he would never sleep with a muggle-born just for a joke she still couldn't stop herself from at least half believing that this whole thing was just so he could turn around later and laugh at her with his friends.

Though Hermione was the smartest and the most quick-thinking witch of her time, when it came to boys she was completely useless and insecure. There was no boy she knew that liked her for a long enough time to make something of it. She had never really dated anybody properly.

The only person she knew who liked her enough was Ron. She thought she had liked him but that was before Draco, she knew that anything she felt about him was nothing compared to what she felt for Draco. That was something she still couldn't understand, Ron had been her friend for years, Draco had been her enemy for years, he had been the one dent in her perfect school life. She knew now that what she felt for Ron was only friendship, a different friendship to what she had with Harry, but still only friendship.

She sniffed sadly, wishing things didn't have to be so complicated. Wishing that the guy she liked more than anyone wasn't going to insult her every two seconds. After a while her tears dried up and she got out of the shower.

She wasn't angry with Draco anymore, she hadn't really been that angry to begin with, just upset. Now she just felt hurt. She got dressed slowly and flopped down on her bed and stared transfixed at the ceiling. After a few minutes she heard a knock on the door.

"Hermione?" Draco called softly to her. She ignored him. There was a pause. Hermione guessed that he was listening to see if he could hear her.

"Hermione!" he called again, louder this time. She stayed silent, hoping he would go away.

"Hermione I..." he stuttered, then cleared his throat, "I'm... I'm sorry."

Hermione sat straight up, had she heard right? Draco Malfoy had actually said sorry? Her tummy flipped, for her that was all that was needed. She unlatched the door and pulled it open slowly. He was watching her with big, weary eyes, she had never seen him look as innocent as he did now.

"I didn't--" he started but was cut off.

Hermione threw her arms around him and buried her face in the crook of his neck, breathing him in. It took a second for Draco to respond by wrapping his arms strongly around her. He had not been expecting this. He thought he would have to say a whole speech before she even considered forgiving him. She also was never this forward, he was always the one who kissed or hugged her, she was always a little hesitant, gazing into his eyes every time before she responded. He hated the way she did that, like she didn't trust him, but he couldn't really blame her for that, he thought to himself.

He sighed contentedly as he felt Hermione's warm breath on his neck. So I guess people were telling the truth, he thought, when they said that one little word could work wonders when you meant it. He hadn't believed them. One word didn't have that much power, but he had been proved wrong, and he found himself unconditionally happy for that. He looked down at the top of the Gryffindor's head, then thought back to what he had said and realised that he really was sorry.

~*~*~*~

Hermione woke up to unfamiliar surroundings. She blinked a few times to trying to see where she was. She was in the common room, lying on a couch in front of the fire. It was only when she felt movement under her head that she remembered why she was here. She looked down into the face of a sleeping Draco. He looked so innocent right now that Hermione couldn't seem to tear her eyes away from him, she stared at him trying to etch the image into her memory.

She remembered back to after he had apologised. She hadn't needed anything else, Draco Malfoy saying sorry was good enough for her. But he wanted to make it up to her. He had made her hot chocolate, the most amazing hot chocolate she had ever tasted and wrapped her in a blanket in front of the fire. Her body had flooded with warmth which had nothing to do with the hot chocolate, it was how he was acting. It reminded her of when she was little, at christmas time when it was cold her mother make them both hot chocolate and they would wrap up in a blanket together beside the fire. This was why Hermione insisted that Draco sit down beside her inside the blanket with her, despite his arguments that he was treating her. They had sat there for an hour, either sipping their hot chocolate quietly or talking about nothing in particular until Hermione had drifted off to sleep.

She smiled. That had definitely been one of best nights of her life.

Draco moaned beside her. She watched him as his eyes opened slowly. She laughed when she saw confusion take over his face. He heard her laugh and his own face took on a smile as his eyes met hers and he realised where he was.

"Oh," he said. He wrapped one of his arms around her, laying her head against his chest. She sighed and drifted back off to sleep, resting against him.

When she woke up he was gone.

At first she thought he was in another room but after she looked around for a while she realised he wasn't anywhere in the dorm. She felt a familiar sense of hurt wash over her. She had been feeling that a lot lately.

She walked down to the Great Hall, determined not to cry this time. As she entered the hall her eyes wandered automatically over the the group of Slytherins sitting together. And there he was, sitting in the middle of them all, smirking, ruling over them. He had them all wrapped around his middle finger and that's how he liked it.

That's the only thing he cares about, Hermione thought to herself as she watched him. Suddenly he looked over in her direction but his eyes darted away as soon as he caught sight of her. That was what made Hermione give in to the hurt she was feeling. It was what made her eyes fill with tears as she turned and stumbled, broken, out the door. What made her decide there was no hope for her, for him, for them, after all.

But she was wrong.

Because of his ability to block emotion from showing in his face no one noticed the change. No one noticed, as Hermione disappeared out of the hall, the guilt that immediately filled and threatened to swallow up Draco Malfoy.

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**Author note: Ok well, I hope it wasn't so bad that you have been turned off the story completely. Please don't go!! What I was trying to do in that chapter was put a little excitement (wrong word but i can't think of the write one...) in their relationship and i also don't want to make Draco really nice all the time and completely good because that's just not him. So please tell me any time if you feel he's getting to nice. Now, there's just one more thing for you to do! Review! Yay!! Fun!! ^_^ Pretty please do though, nothing makes me more excited than to see i have a review. And i will reply to all of them... promise!**

**Love you all!**

**LettersFromNoah xxx**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hi everyone!! :D Hope you all had a good Christmas! What did everyone do and get? Ok here is my chapter five, I think I got it up pretty fast... or is that just my imagination? I actually have an excuse this time! I left my laptop charger at my friends house who lives agesssss away so I couldn't write more for days. It was depressing :'( But anyway... moving on from my sob stories. Here is chapter five, hope you likies!:)**

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**Chapter 5**

Blaise Zabini swallowed nervously as he walked towards the one girl in the school that wouldn't try to flirt with him or stutter uncontrollably when he tried to talk to her. She was bent over a cauldron, concentrating furiously on the task at hand. She slammed her potion book down and groaned in defeat as she watched the mixture in the cauldron take on a muddy brown colour. Judging from her expression it was not the colour she had been going for.

Blaise stopped a few paces from her. She still hadn't noticed him. He hated talking to girls when they were in bad moods, it was too much effort. Ugh, why did they have to be so touchy and emotional? He thought to himself. He considered turning back and reporting to his friend that she had refused to talk to him, then changed his mind. He was not going to be intimidated by a girl, the girl wasn't even mad at him, for Merlin's sake. Besides he had made a promise. So with that thought in mind he marched over to the Gryffindor.

Hermione Granger looked up when he was about one step away. She quickly looked around, as if she was assessing the situation and trying to figure out a way to escape. She seemed to realise that there was no way she could get away and turned, reluctantly, back towards him.

"What do you want?" She asked him curtly.

"I'm here for Draco," he told her.

"Don't bother," she said holding up a hand and beginning to turn away. Blaise grabbed her arm, forcing her to face him again.

"Look, I really don't get much pleasure from this, so trust me I'm not doing it for my own benefit. But I told Draco that I would deliver this message and I'm not letting you go until I do,"

"I can just jinx you," she told him threateningly.

"If you do I'll follow you around for the rest of the day, and all of tomorrow, hell, I'll follow you for the whole week until I give you the message. I promised I would and I don't break my promises so why don't you make it easier on both of us and let me tell you now."

Hermione crossed her arms but didn't say anything. Blaise took this as an invitation to continue.

"Ok, Draco wanted me to tell you that he 'didn't know what to do'," he told her.

"What? That's it? You were going to follow me around all week to tell me that?" Hermione asked astonished and hurt at the same time.

"Yes," Blaise said simply. Hermione shook her head and turned away but, again, Blaise caught her arm, stopping her from going anywhere.

"Hermione, wait," he said, before she could protest, "he does like you, you know."

"He sure has a funny way of showing it," she replied angrily.

"Exactly!" Blaise said, "look, he's never liked someone the way he likes you and he doesn't quite know how to act. Plus the fact that you're in Gryffindor, a muggle-born, and best friends with Potter and that Weasley kid. If people find out about you guys, both of you could be in serious trouble, and they'll have no mercy with you. Let me just say, his intentions are good but he's used to being completely in charge, he's used to every girl bowing down to his needs and swooning at the sight of him. He loves that you don't do that but he also doesn't know how to deal with it. You control a part of him that he didn't know existed until now and he's scared scared of not being in complete control of himself. That's why he leaves, why he doesn't treat you well all the time. He's given up trying to push you away but he's terrified of letting you in, of caring for you too much. But I promise you, he can only hold back for so long, soon you'll have him wrapped around your little finger whether he likes it or not, because he can't help it."

Blaise let out a gush of air as he finished and Hermione stared at him, wide eyed.

"That was the message?" she asked him.

"Hell no! If he knew I told you that I'd have to watch my back for the next year, so you can't tell him that I told you that."

"But how do you know that?" Hermione asked him.

"You know how Potter feels about the Weasley girl, don't you?"

Hermione nodded.

"Well for the same reason I know that. Me and Draco may not be as lovey dovey as you and Potter but we're still best friends," he explained, "Ok, well I am finished with the deep, sentimental stuff for the day, that was enough for the week actually so I'm going to finish here. Just please talk to him, ok?"

Hermione opened her mouth as if about to protest but then stopped and shut it again. Blaise raised his eyebrows questioningly at her. She nodded reluctantly which seemed to satisfy him. He strolled away and went over to some Slytherin girl who immediately began batting her eyelashes at him.

"Why was Zabini talking to you?" Harry asked. She jumped at his voice behind her, she was still watching Blaise. She turned around to see both Harry and Ron watching her. Ron looked curious, Harry looked disgusted, but neither looked suspicious. Hermione said the first thing that came to her head.

"He was asking what the homework was."

"But we haven't gotten any homework yet," Ron said, confused.

"That's what I told him," Hermione said quickly.

"Seemed like a pretty long conversation for just that," Harry muttered quietly.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Hermione asked.

"Look Hermione, I know you, and even Ron, have never had anything against Zabini-"

"Hey! What do you mean? I don't like the guy any more than you do!" Ron exclaimed, taken aback.

"Ok fine, just Hermione then. But listen Hermione, I know you've never seen anything bad in him-"

"Of course there's something bad in him, he's friends with Malfoy!" Ron shouted, interrupting Harry again. His shout caused many stares from the other Gryffindor and Slytherin students that filled the classroom. Hermione saw Blaise smirking at them, he'd probably guessed what they were talking about, she thought. Hermione turned back to Harry. He was just about to start talking again when a shadow loomed over them.

"What gives you the idea that you can talk in my classroom?" The voice of Severus Snape interrupted their conversation, "you just lost Gryffindor five points."

All three friends opened their mouths to protest but were stopped short.

"Each!" and with an evil smirk and a particularly dirty look directed mainly at Harry, the Slytherin head walked away.

Harry waited until the end of the lesson to talk to Hermione again, he didn't want to loose any more points. He had to run to catch up with her in the corridor, she had been trying to avoid him.

"Hermione, hold on for a second, will you?" Harry called when he saw her just ahead. Hermione slowed down to a stop, realising she couldn't outrun him.

"Yes, Harry?" she asked, impatiently.

"About you talking to Blaise in there..." he trailed off, unsure of how he was going to get his point across, "like I said before, I know you've never really seen anything particularly bad in him." He stopped, waiting for her to contradict him. She stayed silent.

"Anyway, you've probably been seeing more of him this year, you being in the same dorm as Malfoy and all," he shuddered at the thought, "but I'm just reminding you that you can't trust him, ok?"

"Excuse me?" Hermione asked, not sure she understood him correctly.

"You can't trust him, he's scum, like Malfoy, that whole lot in Slytherin are. So even though he'll be in your common room a lot, I just want you to ignore him, ok? Don't talk to him." Hermione couldn't believe this.

"Where did this even come from? You can't tell me who not to talk to Harry, I can look after myself. I'll talk to who I want, I know what I can and can't say. I'd have thought after all these years you'd trust me."

"Hermione, you are not to talk to him, understand?"

"How dare you?!" She gave Harry one last cold stare and marched away without a backwards glance. She was angry but also a bit confused, what had brought this on? Harry _did _trust her, she knew that, he had never ordered her around like this before. He had also never grouped all of Slytherin in with Malfoy and called them scum before, this just wasn't like him.

Then another thought struck her. If Harry was this mad about her talking to Blaise, how would he act if he ever found out about her and Malfoy, _Malfoy_; his arch enemy. She could only imagine how he'd react, and Ron too. "Oh God," she whispered to herself, running her hands down her face.

For the rest of the day she spent her free time in the library avoiding everyone, making out she was studying, she wouldn't even talk to Ginny. She left it as long as she could before going up to her dorm but eventually she made the reluctant journey towards the dreaded portrait that would let her into the common room.

"Hello dear, head girl duties not going well?" the portrait asked her sympathetically when she saw her face. Hermione muttered the password without a even a greeting in reply. The portrait swung open with a "well there's no need to be rude..." Hermione made her way as quietly as she could towards the common room to go up to her bedroom. She almost started crying when she saw Draco sitting in the middle of the room, probably waiting for her. She took a deep breath and crossed the room as fast as she could without actually running. She could see him trying to make eye contact with her from the corner of her eye but she wouldn't look at him.

She lay in her bed, staring at the ceiling. If she didn't get some sleep she wouldn't be able to think at all in classes tomorrow, but she couldn't sleep, she wasn't even tired. The same question kept coming into her mind but she still couldn't answer it. What should she do? Be selfish and stay with him or be smart and forget him? Little did she know the subject of her troubles was lying awake in his bed asking himself the exact same question, only he was a little more sure of his answer.

~*~*~*~

When she got to her first class the next morning she made sure Harry could not sit beside her. She dumped her books down on the desk beside Neville, who looked over at her, startled.

"Hi Neville," she said, half-heartedly, not even looking at him. It didn't matter, he was too surprised that she was sitting beside him to make conversation. He just stammered a reply.

Hermione sunk down in her seat, her eyes closed in defeat. There was no way Draco Malfoy was good for her. Being with him was putting her friendship with Harry and Ron in jeopardy, not to mention the fact that it could be dangerous if this was all a set-up, even if it wasn't it was still dangerous. Then there was the fact that he was affecting her school work, not to mention her self esteem, in a bad way. No, it was best for everyone if she just stopped thinking about him altogether. Hermione sighed, that was impossible, she had fallen for him. That was why she couldn't just ignore what Blaise had said to her the day before.

~*~*~*~

She watched his hair, falling over his face as he worked at some assignment he had been given. She smiled as it flicked with every movement of his head, then frowned as she thought back to her conversation with Blaise. She had to do this now, there was no use putting it off, she had already ignored him for a day.

"Draco," she said, announcing her presence. His head immediately jerked up and he stood up when he saw her, his eyes softening.

"Hermione," he began, "I-" he was interrupted.

"Do you like me?" he nodded, his eyes fixated on hers. She walked towards him.

"I want to do this, I want to try this, you and me, just like you said, but I don't know..." she trailed off.

"About yesterday morning-" he started but she interrupted him again.

"It's ok, I got your message," she told him, even though it had not been his message that made her forgive him.

"Then what don't you know?" he asked, worried.

"I'm afraid," she said. He gave her a confused look so she continued, "I'm afraid that you can't... that your heart isn't in the right place."

He raised his eye brows, surprised and guilty, blaming himself fully for the hurt and weariness that showed clearly on her face. He walked quickly around the table and reached her before she had time to back away. He grabbed her hands and tried to look at her but her face was turned down, looking at the ground. He let go of her hands and took her face in both hands and, gently, turned her face up to look at him. He almost hit himself right there when he saw the look on her face. Her eyes brimmed with tears as they gazed into his.

"You're right," he whispered to her. She took a shaky breath but said nothing, so he continued. "My heart isn't in the right place, you took it the minute walked through that door," he motioned with his head to the entrance of the head girl and boy's common room.

"It isn't in the right place, but it's exactly where I want it."

The tears that filled her eyes spilled over, but another feeling tugged at his chest as he watched the corners of her mouth turn up and a small smile lit up her face. He leant towards her and she raised her face to meet him. He let his lips touch her lightly and he felt the water on his cheek as she let the rest of her tears escape.

Hermione couldn't speak. As joy overtook her she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him properly, pushing herself against him, as her tears that had turned from tears of sadness to tears of happiness ran down her cheeks. She felt him respond to her kiss and wrap his arms around her thighs and lift her so that her two legs were wrapped around his waist.

He stumbled backwards and let himself fall onto the couch behind them. He lay on his back and pulled her on top of him. Hermione pulled away and sunk into the space between him and the back of the couch and buried her face in the crook of his neck, suddenly exhausted. He wrapped his arm around her protectively and didn't move while she dozed off, the heat from his body washing over her.

**

She woke up a while later to someone shaking her shoulder. She looked up, it was Draco.

"Hey, dinner's starting in a few minutes. Time to get up," he told her, smiling down at her. She stretched, smiled up at him and, reluctantly, sat up and untangled herself from him.

"Sorry," she said, blushing.

"For what?" he asked.

"For falling asleep and using you as a cushion," she told him, embarrassed. He laughed.

"You don't have to say sorry, don't worry, I liked it," he assured her, "You can use me as a cushion any time you want."

She giggled, still half embarrassed that she had fallen asleep on him. He took her hand in his, Hermione smiled. His hand was so much bigger than hers, it made her feel safe somehow. She tried to flatten her hair with her free hand, it had gotten a bit messed up while she slept. She felt his hand tug slightly away from hers when they reached the exit to the common room, she understood immediately and let go of his hand.

Draco let out a small, unnoticeable sigh of relief. He didn't want to explain to her again why this had to be a secret. He should have known that Hermione was smarter than that but he had still been worried, unnecessarily it turned out.

They walked out of the common room together, but not conversing in any way, not even looking at each other. Anyone walking by would have come to the conclusion that they were two people who didn't like each other, judging from their hostility towards each other, and had had the unfortunate luck of being placed in the same dorm together.

Draco's long strides got him to the Great Hall before Hermione, but he stood there at the entrance, waiting for her. Dinner had already started so most people were inside already. Hermione started when she saw him standing there, she looked around to make sure he wasn't looking at someone else, then made her way towards him. He took her hand in his, bent down and kissed her gently on her lips. She smiled shyly up and him.

Blaise Zabini laughed to himself as he watched his best friend kiss the Gryffindor muggle-born in front of the entrance to the Great Hall. Of all the people... he thought to himself. He watched them break apart, then step away from each other, enter the great hall and walk in different directions to join their friends in their own houses. He laughed again as the doors swung closed again, blocking the inside scene from him. If anyone had told him at the start of the year that his best friend would be going out with Hermione Granger he would have laughed in their face, or punched them in the face, it depended what mood he was in. Well one thing was for sure, he thought to himself, life was definitely weird, and he didn't expect that it was going to change any time soon. And, with that thought still in mind, he followed the forbidden couple into the Great Hall to have his dinner.

* * *

**Well there you go! I know it had quite a bit of Blaise in it but I like Blaise!:D I hope you liked it anyway! Please please please review!! I'll reply to every review so please do! Any comments, questions, they'll make me happy :) Well I'll talk to you in my next chapter, or as review replies *smiles hopefully* byebye!**

**luv**

**LettersFromNoah xxx**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hi Everybody! *hears a chorus of "hi Dr. Nick!" in my head* :P Ok, I'm reallllllyyyyy sorry I haven't updated in so long, I was away in this boarding school place that wouldn't let me use my laptop :O so I couldn't write anything :(. I will try to make it up to you by getting chapter 7 up in the next two weeks, I'll do my very best. It's the least I can do for all for you who have subscribed, commented, or even just read this, a major thanks is in order me thinks... THANK YOUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D:D:D Ok then, on with the story...**

**Disclaimer: You know how it is.**

* * *

Chapter 6

Darkness fell over Hogwarts as a boy strolled down a corridor inside the ancient building carrying out his head-boy duties. First years shrunk back in terror as he approached the few who had dared stay out after curfew, only to gaze after him in astonishment and relief when he passed them without so much as glancing in their direction, his mind elsewhere.

The head-girl walked more swiftly down another hallway, smiling at any students she passed but sending them off to their common rooms with a firm voice. Her observant eye taking in less as time wore on and her thoughts began to drift away from the task at hand.

Their paths crossed on the fourth floor.

He spotted her immediately and his thoughts snapped back to the present as his eyes watched her face. He felt his temperature warm up as she drew closer, a slight tinge of colour lighting up his pale face. She hadn't noticed him yet.

Her hazel eyes watched her feet slapping against the hard floor with each step she took. A small smile was planted on her face as she absent-mindedly twiddled her wand in her hand. She continued forward, oblivious to the boy walking directly toward her. Unlike her, his feet made no noise when they made contact with the floor. He smiled inwardly to himself as her brown curls fell down around her, now almost entirely covering her face.

She felt his hand as he passed her. His fingers entwined with hers for the briefest of moments as he passed her, before letting go and continuing on his way without a word. He smirked when her surprised gasp reached his ears. He turned his head back to face her, but continued walking. She had stopped and turned fully around to watch him walking away, surprise now filled the smile that remained on her face. His silver-grey eyes met her brown ones, a smirk still on his face, and he winked. Her smile stretched into a grin and she shook her head in happy disbelief.

The moment passed as quickly as it had come, and the head-boy and head-girl walked off in opposite directions, only a tell-tale smile remained on their faces.

~*~*~*~

Ron shoved piece after piece of toast into his mouth as he watched one of his best friends glaring angrily at the two girls walking slowly in their direction, whispering excitedly together.

"Hey hawwy, are wu gonna eaa your egg?" he asked, his mouth full of half chewed food. In response, a plate with an untouched egg on it was pushed towards him. Not believing his luck, Ron wolfed down the egg before Harry had the chance to change his mind and snatch it back.

Harry's eyes narrowed in anger and suspicion as he watched the two whispering girls obviously glance over in the direction of the Slytherin table, and start giggling, sharing an unspoken secret between them. He turned his gaze to the table across the hall and scowled over at one of the green-robed students.

Blaise rolled his eyes and gave an amused smirk as the boy sitting beside him chocked out the punch line of a joke he had already begun to laugh at. His smirk lessoned slightly, however, and a questioning gaze filled his eyes as he caught sight of the hate filled gaze that Potter was shooting at him from the Gryffindor table. He held his gaze for a few seconds, but broke it as a fight broke out among some of the boys at his table, and he quickly lost interest in the reason 'The-Chosen-One' had decided to take a sudden personal dislike to him. He let out an amused laugh as rabbit ears suddenly sprouted from the top of one boys head and began twitching uncontrollably.

"Hey Ginny! Morning Hermione!" Ron called good-humouredly. He had finally eaten all the food in reach and was contentedly stretching his arms above his head in satisfaction. "Thanks for helping me with that potions homework last night, I don't know how you understand that stuff."

"No problem!" Hermione chirped happily as she swung her legs over the wooden bench and sat down opposite him at the breakfast table. Ginny, who had followed her lead, smiled over at her brother.

"Hey back!" She said, then the smile fell from her face as she looked around the table. "Ron, did you eat **n**_all_ the food?" She groaned as he smiled guiltily back at her. She stood back up and went in search off some breakfast as Hermione laughed lightly at the predictability of the situation.

Harry, with a sour expression, watched his two best friends and his girlfriend chat friendlily among themselves. They had begun to avoid him over past few days, as he had been in a constantly foul mood. Hermione also hadn't forgiven him for the other day. _How dare he talk to her like that? _He rolled his eyes stubbornly at the memory, insisting to himself that he had been right to give out to her.

After a few minutes a group of sixth years came over to their table. Ginny got up to join them. She came over to him and let her lips touch his, he responded automatically, raising his head slightly into hers, but pulled away quickly and stiffly. He heard Ginny give an exasperated sigh and, out of the corner of his eye, he saw her give Hermione a look that he was sure said something along the lines of '_well there he goes again'._

She joined the group of sixth years and they walked off to class together, a babble of happy laughter and loud voices. Harry glanced quickly back at his two friends who were still sitting at the table beside him. He looked away just as fast when he realised that they were both looking at him with worried expressions.

"Hey, are you ok, mate?" Ron asked in a quiet voice. He didn't answer, just stared straight ahead with a scowl on his face.

"Harry? Please talk to us, what's wrong?" Hermione tried next, leaning forward into his line of vision, making it much harder to ignore her.

"Is it something to do with You-Know-Who?"

The sound of Harry slamming his hands down on the table echoed through the Great Hall. Hermione jumped back in surprise. Ron's eyes widened in bewilderment at this sudden outburst. Heads around the hall turned towards the source of the noise.

"NO, IT IS NOT TO DO WITH..." Harry shouted but stopped himself just in time. He took a deep breath and tried again, much quieter this time. He growled through clenched teeth.

"It is not to do with Voldemort--"

"Don't Harry," Ron interjected automatically. Harry glared at him.

"It has nothing to do with _Voldemort_," he continued, glaring pointedly at Ron as he emphasised the Dark Lord's name, ignoring him as he cringed back from the word.

"Not everything in my life revolves around him, you know, I do have other problems, normal problems in my life, though you may find that hard to believe," he growled out, getting angrier with each word.

Hermione and Ron both looked very taken aback, Hermione was the first to speak.

"You're right Harry, you're completely right, I'm so sorry. Of course you have other problems, who doesn't? I didn't mean to just assume."

Harry felt his anger decrease. It's not very easy to be angry with a person if they don't get angry back.

"It's ok, really, I'd have asked the same thing," he told her, his voice audibly softer.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Hermione asked him.

"No, I'm ok, don't worry about me," he told her, dismissively.

"Of course I'm going to worry about you Harry, you haven't smiled in about three days."

He gave her a tight, sarcastic smile. She rolled her eyes in response as he got up to leave.

"Seriously Hermione, don't bother," he murmured, just loud enough for her and Ron to hear. Hermione stared after him in confusion as he walked from the great hall, his legs dragging.

"You gonna bother?" Ron asked, as soon as the doors had swung shut after Harry. Hermione looked over at him.

"Obviously," she said. Hermione was worried about him, of course. It wasn't like Harry to act this way. He was always the one who kept it together, even in the worst situations, he was her rock. It was only natural for her to assume Voldemort had something to do with this, he was always the reason Harry would openly show his bad mood. Harry usually kept anything else to himself. Ginny, Cho... Draco.

Hermione sighed as his name came to her head and found herself automatically wishing things could have been different, wishing they were friends. She shook the thought dismissively from her head, that was never going to happen, there was no point hoping it would.

Her mind turned back to Harry.

She tried to think of what could be wrong with him, but drew a blank. Apart from her little drama with the Slytherin Prince everything seemed to be fine in school. She looked over at Ron, who was watching her with a slight frown on his face.

"Look Hermione, don't worry about it, he'll work it out himself," he tried to reassure her.

"Yeah, I guess," she replied, unconvinced. Suddenly Ron's eyes slid over towards the Great Hall entrance and his face darkened, a scowl covering his face. Hermione slid around in her seat to see the reason for his sudden change of face. Her heart leapt and a small smile filled her face as Draco Malfoy strolled gracefully into the Hall.

He caught her eye almost immediately but looked away after a millisecond. No one else noticed it, but Hermione saw the corners of his mouth pull slightly upwards in a secret smile as an answer to hers.

All worries of Harry immediately flew out of her mind as her stomach flipped and she had to purposefully stop herself grinning from ear to ear just at the sight of him. She was half aware of Ron's voice grumbling away in the background but she wasn't properly listening. She glanced over at him and reaslised with a start that he was talking to her. Of course he was, who else would he have been talking to? She focused her attention on what he was saying.

"... thinks he's so great the way he walks around here as if he owned the place, wish somebody would teach him a lesson."

Hermione secretly rolled her eyes. Of course, he had been grumbling about Malfoy. She tuned out again, thinking about last night. Girls really hadn't been lying when they said Draco was a sex god, he really was something else, amazing.

"Earth to Hermione!"

Ron's hand waving in front of her face brought her back to the present. She blushed, all-too-clear images still flashing in her head. She tried to cover her blush by acting casual. Ron, ever unobservant, failed to notice her blush, much to Hermione's relief.

"What?" she asked.

"I said would you ever pretty please consider jinxing Malfoy?" he asked her, an evil grin on his face.

"What? No, why? He hasn't done anything."

"That never used to stop you, isn't him being alive reason enough for you? You used to be more fun than this," he grumbled, "I hope you're not falling for him..."

Hermione froze. Even though she knew that he was only joking she became suddenly paranoid. What if he did know? How much did he know? What would he do if he found out? How would she explain?

"Of course I'm not! How dare you? Don't ever say anything like that again!"

She glared at him as she stood up, then turned and walked out of the great hall. Ron's eyes followed her, astonished, and she stomped towards the door.

Hermione fell back against the wall and let out a breath, she closed her eyes and shook her head at herself.

Subtle Hermione, real subtle, she thought to herself.

"Hermione, I need to talk to you."

Hermione jumped at the sudden voice beside her ear. Her eyes flashed open to see a mess of dark brown hair half covering a thin red lightening shaped scar. Two green eyes stared down at her. The anger and worry that filled them immediately filled her with dread.

"What's wrong Harry?" she asked immediately, but he just shook his head.

"Not here," he said and turned away from her. He started walking towards one of the empty classrooms, Hermione had to run to keep up with his longs strides. She followed him into the classroom and waited while he cast a sound proof spell.

"Hermione I want you to be completely honest with me now, can you do that?"

Fear gripped at Hermione's throat but she nodded anyway.

"Is Ginny having an affair with Blaise Zabini?"

Hermione's eyes widened in surprise. Whatever she had been expecting, it certainly hadn't been this. She just stared at him.

"What?" she finally managed to choke out.

"You heard me, has she?"

"No of course not, what makes you ask something like that?"

Harry turned away from her and walked towards the front of the classroom.

"All those secret looks she gives him, I've noticed them and he's even winked at her a few times. And all those times you and her giggle and look over at the Slytherin table, I have noticed you know, maybe Ron is completely oblivious but I am a little more observant than you give me credit for. Look I don't even know why I'm asking you, I know they have something together, I guess I just need you to, I don't know, clarify or something."

"Wait a minute, is this what the whole thing was about the other day? When you told me to stay away from Blaise?"

Hermione winced inwardly at her stupidity of using his first name but Harry either didn't notice or chose to ignore it.

"Yes, that was before I knew that you knew about it. I never thought you would have kept something like that from me, even if it were for Ginny's sake. I certainly didn't think you'd think it was ok, a great piece of gossip, a matter to giggle over."

Harry swung around to face her again, his eyes blazing with anger but Hermione saw the hurt behind them. That was what stopped her from just turning around and walking out, which was what she had been just about to do after he accused her of what he had.

"Harry, you have got to calm down," she told him. She had to admit she was scared, she had never seen him this angry at anyone except Voldemort or his Death Eaters, she had never even seen him this angry at Draco. Even though she knew he would never purposely hurt her she had no idea how strong this anger was and whether he would act on it or not.

"Calm? I've got to calm down? Can I have nothing good in this life? Both my parents were killed, the only relatives I could stay with hate me to my very core and treat me like shit, my real guardian, my god father was killed too. This school, my friends here and my girlfriend were the only good things to ever happen to me Hermione. But now it looks like I'm going to have to leave school to kill the man who killed my parents, my girlfriend is cheating on my with one of my greatest enemies best friend and I find out my best friend knew about it and didn't feel the need to tell me. Now how about that? Everything good I know is disappearing and you're telling me calm down?"

The anger wasn't gone from Harry's eyes but it was the hurt that dominated them and Hermione felt a lump come to her throat as she saw him try to blink away the tears that had now welled up his eyes. She took a step towards him.

"Harry listen to me, you have to believe me when I say this, there is absolutely nothing going on between Ginny and Blaise."

Harry blew out angrily, telling Hermione that he obviously didn't believe her.

"Harry, do you honestly think I would keep that from you, let alone laugh about it?"

Hermione felt a tug at her chest as her best friend broke down in front of her and sobs wrenched through him. His legs slid from under him and he collapsed onto the floor, tears streaming readily from his face. Hermione ran to him and sunk down beside him. She wrapped her arms around his neck tightly as he cried into her shoulder. After a few seconds he pulled away.

"I can't loose her Hermione, I can't, I don't..." he trailed off as his voice cracked and a new batch of tears slid down his cheeks. He tried to wipe them away, half embarrassed, half angry with himself.

"Harry look at me," Hermione said, holding both sides of his face so he would face her. "You are not going to loose her, do you hear me?"

She lightly shook him as he tried to break eye contact with her.

"She loves you, just you," Hermione said, trying to convince him.

"But I saw her look at him, it was definitely him. He winked Hermione, why would he wink?"

"Because that's what Blaise does, please believe me Harry, I promise you there is nothing."

"But then why would she look at him?" he asked, still convinced he was right.

Hermione felt the familiar feeling of guilt hit her as she watched her friend break down in front of her, all because of her. She knew it was her fault, and she also knew that she could do nothing about it. She couldn't tell him.

"Look Harry-" she began, not knowing what she was about to say but he cut her off anyway.

"You know something," he accused, "you do know, and you won't tell me. What is it Hermione?"

"Harry I can't..."

"Yes you can!" he urged, "what is it? Are they? They are, aren't they?"

"No Harry, no they're not."

"Then tell me why they do that."

"Harry please, I can't tell you," she begged him to stop asking, she knew she could only refuse for so long. "But I'm telling you that it has nothing to do with Ginny, or Blaise for that matter."

Harry eyed her suspiciously. It hurt Hermione that he would look at her like that but what was worse was that she knew she deserved it, even though it wasn't for the reason he thought. She met his gaze with her own eyes.

"Please believe me."

"I'm going to be honest with you Hermione, I don't think I can believe you, at least not until I know what you're talking about," he told her, "it just looks too bad, there is no other explanation from where I'm standing, can you see that?"

"I know what you mean," Hermione nodded, "but it all really comes down to whether you trust Ginny and me. I know there are some things that you can't tell us but I trust you so I don't question it. Now I'm asking you to do the same thing for me, do you trust me?"

Harry stared at her for a while. Hermione waited, and waited, for a few awful seconds she was terrified that he wasn't going to answer, but finally he nodded his head slowly. He then became more sure.

"Ok Hermione, ok, I do trust you," he confirmed, to her great relief, "and I'm sorry."

Hermione nodded, she was scared that if she said anything she would choke on the lump that had just come to her throat. Harry trusted her, and even though she wasn't officially doing anything wrong, she still felt as though she was betraying him. She looked at her best friend who had stopped crying by now but still had the telltale signs of dried tears on his cheeks, he gave her a small smile when he saw her looking and pulled her into a tight hug.

As they left the classroom together, Hermione still feeling guilty, they walked into a crowd of students leaving the Great Hall.

Lunch must be over, Hermione thought to herself.

Suddenly she caught a glimpse of that platinum blonde hair and her breath caught in her throat. He hadn't seen her standing there and was walking away from her. But even just looking at the back of his head got Hermione's heart jumping like someone had given her an electric shock. And she knew, no matter how guilty she felt over Harry, she would never be able to give him up.

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**Well there you go! I know that there wasn't very much Hermione/Draco interaction but I needed to do that chapter and I will have them more in the next chapter :) I hope you liked it anyway :D so what did you think? Pretty please comment, you know I love it, and I WILL reply... promise!**

**luv you all!**

**LettersFromNoah **


	7. Chapter 7

**Hey Everyone!! Ok I know it was longer than two weeks but it was pretty fast, right? :P Ok well I'm sorry anyway. Here is chapter 7! Thank you to everyone who has reviewed, I really LOVE getting them :D. And of course thank you to everyone else :) I hope everyone is still liking it, if there is anything that's annoying you or confusing you or anything don't hesitate to mention it! Ok, here you go... enjoy! **

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****Chapter 7**

"You winked at her?"

"Yes."

"You winked at her?"

"Yes."

"Is there an echo in here?" The voice of Draco Malfoy caused Hermione to break away from the argument she was having to him a exasperated look.

"You're really not helping," she said.

"Oh don't worry, I wasn't trying to," Draco replied.

Hermione rolled her eyes at him and turned her attention back to a smirking Blaise.

"Why did you wink at her?" she asked for the hundredth time.

"Because she looked over at me, I was being friendly," he replied, a mock innocent smile on his face.

"But she's-"

"Look," he interrupted, "I told you to tell her to stop giving me those looks, but they didn't stop so, you know, if you can't beat 'em join 'em."

"Join them and you never set foot in this dorm again," Draco said with a laughing grin.

"Thanks," Hermione said sarcastically.

"What? Oh come on, you know I didn't mean you," he said defensively, a smirk still on his face.

"Oh well who did you mean then?" Hermione asked, her hands on her hips. She was still annoyed with the both of them.

"Ok when you two are finished with your lovers tiff, can I just ask why I am in so much trouble for winking my eye?" Blaise asked impatiently.

"Because you're causing problems!"

"What problems? With who?" Blaise persisted.

"Ugh ok look, Harry saw you winking at Ginny and he thinks that there is something going on between you guys," Hermione told him, feeling a bit bad for telling him but knowing at the same time that he wouldn't tell anyone.

"So by winking I'm causing problems for the famous Harry Potter?" Blaise asked, a grin beginning to form on his face.

"Keep winking, I say," Said Draco. The two boys burst into laughter. Hermione wanted to scream at them, couldn't they see that she didn't think this was funny. This was hurting her best friend.

"Can you please listen to me?" Hermione tried to shout but her voice cracked at the end. Draco noticed immediately and stopped laughing. He got up from his place on the couch and walked towards her. He wrapped his arms around her waist and held her close to him looking into her eyes.

"Hey, hey," he comforted, "We were just messing I'm sorry. Of course Blaise will stop if that's what you want."

He ignored Blaise's protests from behind him.

"Thanks," Hermione whispered, not wanting to cry in front of him or Blaise.

"Well I'm getting out of here, still can't see how you stand all this cuddly touchy feely stuff," Blaise said, heading for the door. Just as he reached the door Draco spoke up.

"You will stop," he said softly but firmly, not even looking up from Hermione.

"Yeah, yeah sure don't worry about it," came the response just before the door slammed shut closing them in.

Draco bent down and let his lips meet Hermiones. Hermione leaned into his kiss and slid her arms around his neck, pulling herself into him.

She felt him start to pull her top up but stopped half way up, paused for a moment, and then pulled it back down. Confused, Hermione unwrapped her arms from his neck and started to pull her top off herself but stopped when Draco put his hands on hers and gently started to push them back down. Hermione tilted her head slightly and gave him a questioning stare.

"Would you mind terribly if we didn't do this right now?" he asked her. Hermione shook her head, of course she didn't mind but that didn't mean she wasn't surprised. She couldn't stop herself feeling a tiny bit hurt too, hurt that he didn't want her. Draco must have seen it in her face because he pulled her in for a kiss.

"I'm sorry, you know I want to, of course I do, I just don't feel the best right now," he whispered in her ear.

Hermione's confusion and hurt immediately turned to concern.

"What's wrong? Is there anything I can do? Do you need to see Madam Pomfrey?"

Draco laughed as he watched her concerned gaze look him over quickly, he shook his head.

"No it's fine, I'll be fine," he told her. Hermione looked up into his grey eyes smiling down at her and thought she saw something flash in them but it was gone after a millisecond.

Draco gave her one more kiss before he turned away and headed up to his room. Hermione stood there for a while before heading up to her room, all the while trying to figure out why she was getting that feeling that something wasn't right.

~*~*~*~

Ginny smiled as his hand entwined with hers, his eyes locked on hers for the first time in days, a smile on his face. She didn't know what had been up with him and she didn't know what made him get over it, all that she cared about was that he was back with her again. From what she'd heard they needed to spend every minute they could together, before he left. She knew her mother would never let her leave school to go with him, she might let Ron after a long argument but never her, her only girl, her youngest child.

Harry stared into Ginny's eyes, taking her in, every single bit of her. He had spent most of yesterday thinking about things, about her and Blaise, and he realised that he didn't care. Even if she had had a something with Blaise, and he accepted now that that was very unlikely, he knew that he would forgive her. He would forgive her for anything, she would just have to say the word and he would be back at her side again.

She looked up at him again and her eyes met his. She blushed slightly and smiled up at him, she was so beautiful. God, he loved her.

"Well I see you two have reconciled your differences," Ron's voice came from behind them. Oh, so he did notice after all, Harry thought to himself.

Ginny turned around and gave her brother a big smile, Ron grinned back at her. No matter how weird and awkward it was having his best friend dating his little sister he had to admit they looked happy. At least with Harry he knew that Ginny was being treated well and he wouldn't have to be breaking any noses, apparently that was what older brothers were obliged to do when their little sisters get dumped or cheated on or treated badly, according to Hermione anyway.

The aforementioned joined them just as they reached the breakfast table. She sighed happily as she sat down with them, it was good to have the old Harry back, laughing with them. She took a quick glance over at the Slytherin table as she remembered her talk with Harry. Her eyes immediately landed on Blaise. What was he looking at? It better not be Ginny. She followed his line of vision. Damn, it was Ginny. She stared at him until he felt someone's eyes on him and he switched his gaze to her, their eyes met and he immediately looked away guiltily. That was strange, thought Hermione, very unlike Blaise.

"...well Fred can tell obviously, and he's a bit annoyed. But what can you do? With twins as close as them it's bound to happen," Hermione heard Ron say as she entered back into the conversation.

"What? What's happening now?" she asked.

"George likes Angelina," Ron told her.

"Really? He said this?" she asked, astonished. This was the first she'd heard of this. "Is Fred angry?"

"Merlin Hermione, I just answered that!" Ron laughed, "not listening for once? Best not make that into a habit, you might only get exceeds expectations in one of your exams!"

Hermione rolled her eyes as Ron mocked horror and the rest of her friends laughed.

"Ok I'll answer one more time, for you," Ron said, still chuckling to himself, "like I said, Fred is a bit annoyed, of course, but he's not angry. They're Fred and George, have you ever heard of something that one twin liked that the other didn't? So it was bound to happen sooner or later, but it's not like George is going to steal Angelina or anything, he just likes her so it's really no big deal.

"Oh and no George didn't say anything, he didn't want to make anything awkward and it's not as if he's in love with her. But Fred noticed anyway, of course."

"And how do you know this?" Hermione asked, slightly in awe of the twins, she had always admired their close bond. She had never met twins who were as inseparable as the Weasley twins.

"Mum heard them fighting, well I don't even know if you'd call it fighting, they were just having a serious conversation that didn't include even one joke! So naturally mum sent an owl to all of us to tell us to see if we could send an owl to them and sort it out," Ron told her.

"She didn't send an owl to me!" Ginny cried.

"I guess she thought it was guy stuff, you know? For the brothers to sort out," Ron said, trying to make an excuse for his mum.

"She thought sorting out relationship problems was guy stuff?" Ginny asked sarcastically.

"Yes! Ok well, maybe it was because they were boys and she wanted to see how guys think and she didn't think you'd know..." Ron said, "and I don't appreciate what you seem to be implying there."

"Oh come on Ron, everyone knows that girls are better at sorting out relationship issues than boys," Ginny said.

"That is not true!" Ron argued, but then laughed, "although, I guess sending me the letter was not the smartest thing to do, because even if I don't think that's true with all boys, I am certainly hopeless at relationships!" he joked.

The group of friends laughed lightly. Hermione smiled at the light mood at the table, her mood couldn't help but lift in this atmosphere. All thoughts of Blaise, or his best friend for that matter, left her mind for the time being.

The day passed by quickly, Hermione found that she was able to concentrate on her work much more easily, now that she had no other things to worry about.

She climbed through the portrait into her common room, looking forward to seeing Draco. She looked around the room for him but couldn't see him. He mustn't be back from head boy duties yet, she thought to herself. She waited. And waited. But he didn't come. She went to bed confused and more than slightly worried.

The next morning she woke up got ready and went down to her common room, only to meet a frantic Blaise.

"Where's Draco?" he asked. Hermione shook her head.

"I don't know, why? What's wrong?" She told herself not to panic.

"Well... it's... it's nothing really," Blaise stammered, "but I would have liked to talk to Draco all the same."

"Well do you want to talk to me about it?" Hermione asked helpfully. Blaise let out a short laugh.

"No, thanks, but I don't think so," he told her, "well, I'll see you later."

Blaise turned and climbed out through the portrait. Hermione stood there for a minute or two, trying to figure out what that was all about, she shrugged to herself and grabbed the books she needed for her lessons. She heard a noise behind her and swung around. Draco's form walked down the stairs from his bedroom towards her. Hermione's eyes widened in surprise, she'd thought that he hadn't slept there at all last night, clearly she had been wrong.

"Good Morning!" he greeted her warmly, she smiled at him.

"Morning," she replied. All the worry she'd felt vanished, he was obviously ok, "how come you were so late last night?"

"Oh, you know, stuff to do," he said. Was it just her imagination or did his eyes not meet hers when he said that?

"Oh, ok, well Blaise was looking for you," she told him, "he just left."

"Oh?" he asked, surprised, "what was it about?"

"I don't know, he didn't tell me. He was acting kind of weird though."

"He didn't tell you?" Draco's frowned in confusion, "I'd better go and find him then, see you later."

He leaned into her and kissed her gently, smiled at her and left the common room. Hermione grabbed her robes off the chair and followed him out.

Hermione joined Harry and Ron in the great hall for breakfast, Ginny wasn't there, which surprised Hermione until she saw her walking towards them.

"Hey Ginny," Hermione greeted her, Ginny gave her a weak smile back.

"Are you ok?" Hermione asked her. Ginny nodded, unconvincingly. The look on her face said otherwise. She looked upset and quite angry. Hermione could see that Ginny was determined not to talk about whatever was upsetting her so she kept her mouth shut.

"So are you ready for the party tonight?" Ron asked.

"What? What party?" Hermione asked.

"Am I really hearing this? Hermione Granger has forgotten one of the most important events of the month that I, lowly Ron Weasley, have remembered?" Ron mocked, a grin on his face. Harry laughed along with him. Hermione clapped a hand to her forehead as it came to her.

"Oh! The prefects party! I completely forgot, shoot!" She cried.

"Relax Hermione, you didn't have to do anything, it's all taken care of, all you have to do is show up," Ron said, still grinning.

Hermione scolded herself, how could she have forgotten? This year the prefects had thought of the idea of having a party just for them, a night off their hard work, they said. They had taken the idea to the headmaster who, surprisingly, agreed. And the night was finally here. It was for the prefects but they could take anyone they wanted.

Harry, the Quidditch captain, was included in the party and was obviously going to take Ginny.

"Who are you going with Ron?" Hermione asked. Ron looked at her surprised.

"Well, I thought, well, you know, I thought we were going together," he said. Hermione rolled her eyes inwardly. He obviously hadn't learnt anything since the fourth year Yule Ball.

"Well, I'm sorry Ron, but unfortunately the head boy and girl have to go together," Hermione told him, it was one of the few rules Dumbledore had insisted on.

"What? You have to go with Malfoy? Then who will I go with?"

"I don't know Ron, if you'd had the decency of asking me to go instead of just assuming I could have told you this before."

Hermione ignored Ron's grumbling and began worrying about the party. Was everything set up properly? How would it go? What would she wear? She forced herself to take a deep breath, this party wasn't her problem. If it didn't go well that wasn't her fault, all she was doing was turning up. Surprisingly, this did help calm her down a bit and she was able to finish her breakfast in peace.

The worrying was right back gnawing at her mind as soon as classes finished though. All prefects and the head boy and girl had been given the afternoon off their duties to get ready for the party. So she raced up to her common room to do just that.

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**Ok, there we go! Did you like that? Please tell me! Well obviously the next chapter is going to based around the dance but don't worry it won't be boring! :) (I hope :P) Please please review! I promise I will reply, it's the least I can do :D And again thank you for reading :D **

**Thank you thank you!! **

**LettersFromNoah xxx**


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